☕️ Good morning, friends,

We’re back in our home city of Shanghai, the unofficial coffee capital of the world.

🪥 Starting this Monday with a special coffee creation: toothbrush coffee.

Don’t ask. Just take a look...

BENCHMARKS

Highlights

💹 Japan’s Nikkei Hits New Record: Chip stocks are soaring as if someone whispered “AI” into the trading terminal.

🇭🇰 Mainland Investors Pump 26 Billion USD Into Hong Kong ETFs: AI hype and a biotech boom meet a young, digital-first Alipay generation.

📈 Korea Discount No More: With new governance rules, a “KOSPI 5000” taskforce, and a tax review, President Lee is serious. Result: the KOSPI is Asia’s top performer.

NUMBER OF THE DAY

465 million USD

U.S. investment giant KKR is spending that amount on 14 Fuji Soft office towers.
It’s the largest deal so far in Japan’s REIT market in 2025, following a six-month bidding battle with Bain Capital.

🏢 Property Arbitrage: After the purchase, KKR immediately shifted the towers into its own REIT — locking in a safe profit with 4.7% yields against just 4.1% capital costs. While Bain could only resell to third parties, KKR played both sides of the deal.

💡 Rental Innovation: Japan Metropolitan Fund, a REIT under KKR, secured Japan’s first market-based rent adjustment clause — instead of tying rents to inflation, they now track actual office market prices.

No wonder 90% of J-REITs are trading below book value: investors can smell when sponsors are playing Monopoly with themselves.

Watch: The sale-and-leaseback gives Fuji Soft fresh cash for tech investments. The trick works so well, KKR has already pulled it off twice.

TOP BIT

⚖️ TikTok and Tariffs: U.S. and China Keep Talking

In Madrid, Washington and Beijing are holding their fourth round of talks: on the table is an extension of the tariff truce until November – and the question of whether TikTok must be sold in the U.S. or banned outright. Both sides want to avoid sliding into a new trade war.

The Details

⏳ Two Deadlines Looming: The current tariff pause ends on …